Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Editors' Note

A front-page article on Jan. 29 about allegations of fraud on eBay referred to complaints that pieces of costume jewelry labeled Weiss, of value to collectors if authentic, were often counterfeit. (The Weiss jewelry company went out of business in 1971.) One buyer said she had had a set of brooches examined by an independent appraiser who judged them fake. The seller was not named in the article, but other details indicated her identity.

In fairness, The Times should have sought her response. The seller, Sabrina Lefler of Draper, Va., who has agreed to be identified, said last week that she had bought the jewelry from various sources, assuming it to be genuine, but noted that her eBay listing of the items had not guaranteed their authenticity. She also said she was not convinced that the pieces appraised as fake were ones she had sold.

The article also referred imprecisely to the lot involved in the transaction. The $360 price was for 58 pieces, including two brooches signed Weiss, not for Weiss-labeled pieces alone.